Saturday, December 31, 2011

25 Years of Our Journey!

10th of September in 1987, I had put in my papers resigning my corporate communication job in a German company, after six years of exciting work. Armed with the new knowledge and experience I felt the need for the small enterprises to benefit from the public relations services. It was an unheard of concept at least in Chandigarh, since only a few PR consultancies existed at that time in the country, and that too were limited to big metros. . It was a shocker for most of the journalist friends at that time, who nevertheless wished me luck. And on 13th September CorePR was born. As we look back these 25 eventful years, and long association that we have enjoyed with many of our clients, we wish to thank all those who believed in us, and trusted our capabilities. It is gratifying that we continue to travel together with most of them even today. And credit goes to my last employers for taking us on board as their PR consultant that helped us venture into the arena and sustain ourselves for more risks. Having started my career as a journalist, and moving over to an entirely new field of corporate communication, nearly three decades back, I have seen the growth of Public Relations profession in the country. At a time, when only handful of PR agencies existed in the country, we entered a virgin domain in a region, where the concept itself was a novelty and when PR was considered as a unwanted service with no significant tangibles to prove. Twenty five years back, there were no computers, no mobiles, fax machines. With limited telephones and the telex number that we obtained from the post office, and a manual typewriter with reams of paper and carbon paper, (as xerox was still experimenting with duplication), we were in business. Imagine the time when each press release was first vetted from the client, retyped with corrections, got signed, and then delivered to the newspaper office manually. That was the time when exposed film rolls were carefully packed in black sheets of paper, and sent through the roadways bus to Delhi for the use of Doordarshan. There were no flights from Chandigarh and no Shatabadis. That was the exciting time as we faced one challenge after another and emerged winners, together with our clients. I recall the help of numerous PR professionals who helped us through this journey. In our initial years, I wish to pay tribute especially to the legends of our PR profession, who always lent their year to hear me out and mentored. Some of these stalwarts included, the then PR Director of Pfizer Mr. K.S. Neelakandan, Greaves Cotton's PR Manager Mr. Sushil Bahl, Good Year's Anil Basu, Indian Airlines' PR Director Ajit S. Gopal, Groz Beckert Saboo's Managing Director R.K. Saboo, Molins India's managing director Subhash Bijlani, and of course, our first client besides my former employer, the management of Crompton Greaves, to name just a few. Working with these stalwarts, opened up unlimited opportunities for us to understand how effective communication changes lives and empowers people to grow and succeed. Thank you every one as we reach a significant milestone of our journey. Thank you for lending us your shoulders so that we can stand on them and scan newer horizons.